Reject
by FanfictionByA
Summary: Jughead and Americus; all alone but against the world together
1. Chapter One

basically follows the riverdale timeline but I added another character, Americus which is Jughead's twin sister. Because of this, some scene will differ when I write them in this fanfic

This is also on my Wattpad account under the same name

It was a typical night for us Jones Kids; Jughead and I, Americus. We were at Pop's Chocklit Shoppe eating food and staying there as long as we can, until Pop chucks us out. I was currently drawing in a book my mother gave me while Jughead was typing away on his laptop. Our situations was a bit of problem but Jughead and I always get through it. I looked over to Jughead who was sitting next to me and started reading what he was typing on his laptop.

 _"That Cheryl dropped a glove in the water, and Jason reached down to get it and accidentally tipped the boat, and panicked and drowned," I read out loud as he paused from typing. "It's sounding good bro," I patted him on he back before shoving my book in my bag._

"I'm just starting it, I need more details though. Right now it's just an account on what happened. If we find out who did it, it will have more," he told me before he clicked saved and turned to face me completely and picking at the chips on his plate.

"Jug, are we going back to the drive in tonight?" I questioned quietly as I swirled the straw in my water, making sure no one could hear me.

"Yeah. I know that it isn't the best but it's all we have, Mer," he told me, calling me by my nickname.

"I know, I understand. I just don't like it when you know who is around," I sighed to Juggie.

"I know but there is nothing we can do," he explained to me. I once again sighed and stood up.

"I'm just going to the bathroom," I informed Jug before leaving and heading to the female door. After doing my business and washing my hands, I looked at myself in the mirror; my pale skin showed all the dirt on me, my dark brown hair in low pigtails under my beanie were becoming ratty, my face had no makeup to hide what I didn't like as I couldn't afford it, my jeans were starting fray. I just shook my head and walked out and heard the bell of the front door ring. I looked up from my semi dry hands and saw a girl around my age walk in with a black dress and overcoat/cape, looking around the place. Her eyes landed on me and she grew closer towards me as I tried to get back to Jughead.

"Hello," she said to me and smiled. I didn't want to be rude so I just smiled back and made my way to Jughead, sitting down next to him.

"You alright Mer?" He asked as soon as I sat down.

"Yeah, just ran into someone new and didn't know what to do when she said hello so I smiled and walked off," I told him with a little laugh.

"You are so antisocial," Jughead laughed at me quietly before returning to his laptop. I looked over and saw that the new girl was now talking to Archie and Betty. I started listening in on their conversation, wondering what they were talking about

"What's that girl's problem? The one sitting next to the guy in the weird beanie," the new girl asked, making my heart crack a little.

"Americus? She's just not keen around new people. She means well," Archie defended me before he saw me watching and gave me a smile. I waved back before turning to face Jug.

"I can tell she is going to be a part of all this drama and trouble, Juggie," I told him

Jughead nodded his head, agreeing with me, as he went back to typing

" _As for us, we were still talking about the "july fourth tragedy," on the last day of summer vacation, when a new mystery rolled into town_ ," I watched Jug type before closing his laptop and looking through his wallet, seeing only a $20 note left. I swallowed hard as I tried not let my stomach grumble.

"Sure you don't want any food Mer?" He asked me.

"No, I'm not hungry," I replied with a smile. We started to gather our bags before leaving the diner and trudged our way back to the drive in.

"Do we really have to go back to school tomorrow, Jug? I mean it's not like anyone will notice. Betty is too occupied with Kevin and Archie is now Mr Popular. We could slip away, we could disappear," I tried to convince Jug as the ground beneath my boots squelched with every step with light rain starting to form.

"I know, but we have to stay in school," Jug said, readjusting his bag strap as we walked through the gates of the drive in and straight to the projector room.

I opened the door, using my shoulder to barge it so it would open properly before chucking my school bag in the corner and looking around the place. It was very small, with a bookcase at one end that held our books and our clothes, a wall made out of boxes for us to change behind while at the other end of the room was our beds; Jug's being a semi thick mattress raised off the ground on a camp stretcher while mine was an old one that was thin like a yoga mat. Jug would always argue about me sleepin on the floor and tonight was no different as I sat down on mine.

"No, Americus, if you keep taking that one mattress you're gonna get sick," Jug tried to convince me.

"No, I won't. I'm not even cold," I lied to Jug. He sighed and crawled into his bed.

"Night Juggie," I told him.

"Night Mer," he replied before I turned the light off.

I didn't sleep well that night, barely getting any sleep but it wasn't long until it was 5:45 and Jug's alarm was going off.

"Jug, get up. We gotta get ready," I tried to tell him as I rolled over and shook his shoulder, before I coughed a little.

"You alright Mer?" He asked me as he sat up, rubbing his eyes.

"Yeah, I think I just swallowed some dust," I replied, standing up out of my bed and grabbing some clothes and headed behind a wall of boxes we had made for a changing area. I quickly changed into my jeans from yesterday and a clean shirt before walking out and started to clean my teeth, letting Jug get dressed.

"You ready to go to school?" Jughead asked as he grabbed a pop tart, ready to leave.

"Yeah, okay," I replied. We grabbed our bags and turned off the light before heading to school.

The whole school filed into the auditorium, sitting in the bleachers and looking at Cheryl Blossom before she started her speech about her brother.

I tuned out and leant my head on Jughead's shoulder as he typed away. But as soon as I placed my head on his shoulder, he turned to look at me.

"Are you okay?" He whispered to me.

"Yeah, just tired," I told him, not opening my eyes. I was tired, I couldn't sleep because of the hard ground.

"Don't worry, we will get to pop's this afternoon and you can sleep there," he whispered back. It wasn't long until the assembly was finished and Cheryl announced that the semi formal was not going to be cancelled. Jughead and I didn't care about it because we weren't going to go. Everyone left a bit happier, heading into the lunch break. Jug and I headed in separate directions as our lockers were in different areas. I finally made it to mine and started to place my books away when I looked up and saw Betty waving at me. I waved back thinking that's all she would do but she started walking towards me.

"Hey Mer, you been okay? I haven't seen you in ages!" Betty exclaimed with a smile. She still looked the same as usual; blonde hair curled in a pony tail, blouse and skirt.

"Yeah I've been alright," I replied with a small smile. Betty stepped forward, grabbing me in a hug before stepping back

"Come have lunch with me and Archie," Betty pleaded with a huge smile.

"I can't, I've gotta get back to Jughead. I'll talk to you later," I told her as I walked towards the library. I walked in and saw Juggie sitting by himself with his laptop.

"Not having lunch today?" He asked me, not looking up from his laptop. I sat my books on the desk and sat beside him.

"No, not hungry. Just tired," I replied lying my head on my books and taking a nap until the bell went off and it was back to class.

It was about 11pm and Jughead and I were at our usually place, Pop's. Jughead was typing away once again while I was doing my maths homework which was due the next day. There was a comfortable silence between jug and I as we did our work, that was until the door bell chimed which made us look up and see Archie. I watched as Jughead's shoulders tensed at the sight of him. Archie turned around and started to talk to Pop before walking over to us.

"Can I sit Jughead ?" Archie asked uncertainly, his eyes flickering between mine and Jug's.

"If you want," Jug replied and Archie sat.

"I'm just gonna go talk to Pop's about that thing," I excused myself and got up before sitting back down at the bar near Pop.

"What are you working on?" I heard Archie ask Juggie.

"A novel. It's about this summer and Jason blossom," Jug explained to Archie.

"Seventeen years old and how will he be remembered? As captain of the water polo team?" Archie questioned, seeming interested.

"The aquaholics? Considering how he died, probably not," Jug chuckled.

"No what I meant was…" Archie retorted, "was he doing everything he was supposed to do? Everything he wanted? Did he even know what that was?"

"Just to let you know quickly, I'm gonna have to ask you to leave after Jug and Archie are finished," Pop told me and I nodded, tuning back into their conversation.

"No, in fact I'm kinda terrified I lost my best friend tonight," Archie explained. I knew that this would hit a sore spot for Jug.

"If you mean Betty, whatever happened just talk to her. You know, it'd go a long way. Would've gone a long way with me," Jug replied back, dropping hints about their friendship.

"Anyway, we've gotta go now, isn't that right Americus?" Jughead called out to me. I swing my legs around the seat and stood up.

"Yep, nice seeing you Archie," I told Archie with a small smile. Archie smiled back and left the diner.

"Pop said we have to leave," I informed Jughead as I packed up my school books.

"Okay," he replied as he typed the last of his paragraph. After packing up my books I looked over his shoulder, looking at what he was writing.

 _It was midnight and my old friend archie andrews arrived at the one place in town that was still open. He was looking for the girl next door, instead he found me. And so, it wasn't one heart that broke that night it was two and the night was far from over._

Jughead closed his computer and soon we were ready to leave.

"What ever happened between you and Archie?" I asked Jug as we walked home, hands shoved in our jackets so they wouldn't get cold.

"Like the usual, he ditched me for other, better friends," Jughead told me, his pace he was walking at speeding up, which was a sign for me to not ask questions and just keep them to myself.

I woke up the next morning to the door being opened and light streaming into the room.

"What's up juggie?" I asked he walked in and sat beside me on my bed.

"They found Jason's body in the river with a gunshot in his head," Jughead informed me before pulling out his laptop and starting to type.

 _By the morning everyone would be talking texting and posting about it, we would all be feeling it. That the world around us had changed, maybe forever. That riverdale wasn't the same town as before that it was the town of shadows and secrets now._

This was very short because Kughead isn't very involved with the others in the first episode so I was kinda limited. Thanks for reading this chapter though ~ FanfictionByA


	2. Chapter Two

p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Americus, wake up," I heard Jughead groan as he kicked my shoulder. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Could you not be a dick?" I whined as I sat up, rubbing my eyes. I looked up and saw Jughead sitting on his bed, also rubbing his eyes. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Could you not be so whiney?" He shot back before getting up and stepping over me. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Please, Jug. Let me stay here. No one will notice," I pleaded, rolling to face the wall. I felt a ping of sadness as I realised that I was right; no one would notice that I wasn't there./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I will notice which will make me upset when I have no one to pick on," Jughead chuckled as he started to brush his hair. I slowly sat up as I tried to stretch out my sore stiff back./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"strong id="docs-internal-guid-1438a342-a690-79b9-80c6-0abd133bc995" style="font-weight: normal;" /strong/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Americus, you better be up!" Jughead yelled from the otherside of the box wall/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"strong style="font-weight: normal;" /strong/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I groaned as I stood up and grabbed a shirt and a pair of jeans that were sitting on the makeshift bench. I slipped them on quickly before joining jughead on the other side, who was looking at his phone. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"strong style="font-weight: normal;" /strong/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Ready to go?" He asked as he looked up at me with a smile. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Yep," I replied before grabbing my bag and following Jughead out the door. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"strong style="font-weight: normal;" /strong/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: center;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"***/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"strong style="font-weight: normal;" /strong/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Americus, I'll catch up with you later, I've gotta speak to Archie," Jughead told me and walked off before I could even say a word. I sighed and readjusted my bag strap before walking to my locker alone, just like before. I knew that as soon as Jughead and Archie were on speaking terms I would be shuffled off to the side like I was before. When I finally made it to my locker, I saw a note sticking out of the vent. I grabbed it out and unfolded it to see a message./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"strong style="font-weight: normal;" /strong/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I want to be your friend, sit with us at lunch time/span/p  
ul style="margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"  
li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type: disc; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Veronica Lodge XX/span/p  
/li  
/ul  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"strong style="font-weight: normal;" /strong/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I shook my head before opening my locker and placing the note inside. I knew girls like veronica, they waltz into town and believe everyone is going to love them. I quickly grabbed my biology books and walked to class. I didn't really like biology, maths was the only class I really enjoyed, considering there was usually only one answer to each question. I was sitting alone when Jughead walked in and placed his books next to mine./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Americus, are you okay? You seem off…" Jughead questioned me with a concerned look. I laid my head on my pencil case and turned to him with tears starting to surface in my eyes./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""It's just a tough day," I replied back with a small smile. Jughead went to go say something when the PA system crackled, causing me to sit up as I knew there was a message about to come through. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"strong style="font-weight: normal;" /strong/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Good morning students. This is your principal speaking. There have been many inquiries about the upcoming pep rally. So let me state clearly, it is happening, as scheduled. Now, on a less felicitous note, if you could give your attention to sheriff keller," The principal spoke. There was a bit of shuffling before a new voice came through the speaker that I knew belonged to Sheriff Keller/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Most of you already know the details, but your classmate Jason Blossom's Body was found late saturday night. So as of the weekend, Jason's death is now being treated as a homicide. It is an open and ongoing investigation-" /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""And may I interject, neither I nor my parents will rest until Jason's death is avenged, and his cold-hearted killer is walking the green mile to sit in old sparky and fry. I, for one, have my suspicions. Hashtag riverdale strong," Cheryl's annoying voice appeared on the PA. I rolled my eyes and laid my head on the desk, wishing this day would be over. Sheriff Keller continued on about Jason and his murderer but I continued to keep my eyes closed./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"My eyes shot open though when Jughead was suddenly getting out of his seat and walking out of the classroom./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Jughead!" The teacher called out but he continued to make his way out of the classroom. The teacher's eyes darted to me, because the last time this happened Jughead was having a breakdown. "Miss Jones, you are excused," The teacher told me. I packed my books and left the room, following the sound of Jughead's voice/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"strong style="font-weight: normal;" /strong/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""This summer, we were supposed to go on a roadtrip, over the July 4th weekend which you bailed on at the last minute. Is there something you wanna tell me, pal?" i heard Jughead question with venom in his voice. I quickly decided that this was not my conversation to intervene into and quickly made my way back to the common room, not really feeling like going back to class but also didn't feel like interfering with Jug and Archie/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"strong style="font-weight: normal;" /strong/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"br class="kix-line-break" /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I knew you were there, Americus," I heard a voice say, catching me by surprise. I looked up from my book and saw Jughead smirking at me as he leaned against the door frame/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I have no clue what you mean, Forsythe," I pretended to act shocked. I only used his full name when I was angry. Jughead chuckled as he took a few more steps into the common room. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""C'mon, let's go to biology," he told me and gestured for me to leave. I placed my book back in my bag, passing jughead as I walked out. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Party pooper," I mumbled, making sure he could hear me. Jughead laughed as he walked beside me towards biology./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"strong style="font-weight: normal;" /strong/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"As we walked into the classroom together, I couldn't help but notice Jughead glaring at Archie as we both walked to our seat. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""We were wondering, cheryl," I heard a girl start to ask behind me. "Back in july, you told the po-po that jason drowned. Yet, we come to find out that jason didn't drown. He was shot. That's slightly suspicious, no?" The girl continued, trying to make it seem like Cheryl killed her own brother/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Are you living mannequins suggesting I had something to do with my brother's death?" Cheryl snapped back as I started to tune out of the conversation and lie my head on my pencils case. I couldn't stand Cheryl; she was such a nice person in elementary but since high school began, she changed into a cold hearted person. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Alright, alright!" The teacher announced as he walked in. "Everyone pair up, we are doing experiments!" /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Jughead and I did not move, considering that we always went together. There was a lot of commotion around us about people bickering about who they wanted to be with. It wasn't too long before the teacher came around with frogs on trays and also handed us our equipment. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"strong style="font-weight: normal;" /strong/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Ew, I think I wanna gag," I cringed as I poked the frog with the tweezers. Its skin slightly moved under it and I tried not to overreact. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""C'mon Americus, you've seen worse," Jughead smirked. Jughead started the experiment while I watch but soon my attention was caught by Archie and Cheryl's conversation. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"strong style="font-weight: normal;" /strong/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I'm not great at science, but I can take point on this, if it's too weird for you,"Archie offered to Cheryl. /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"br class="kix-line-break" /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Weird, why?" Cheryl replied with an absent mind. It almost seemed like she forgot what was happening today, until she continued to speak. "Oh, you mean because my brother is being dissected with a blade, just like this one, possibly at this very moment?" Cheryl asked rhetorically/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"br class="kix-line-break" /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Don't worry, i'm fine,"she reassured Archie. All of a sudden, the sound of a blade cutting through skin could be heard partnered with other girls gasped which caused me to turn around. The frog for the experiment was now impaled by Cheryl's scalpel as she stared at the girls that taunted her. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""In fact, I'm amazing."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"strong style="font-weight: normal;" /strong/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: center;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"***/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"strong style="font-weight: normal;" /strong/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"It was later in the day at lunch time when Jug and I had decided to sit outside for once, instead of tucking ourselves away in the library as we usually did. Jughead - for once - was sitting beside me without his laptop, he told me that he was wanting to just view how everyone was acting about Jason's murder. Myself on the other hand, had a few textbooks open around me with my writing book, trying to finish the notes I had been writing for class./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"strong style="font-weight: normal;" /strong/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""So, Americus," Jughead started to ask as he put his book down and looked directly at me. "What were you trying to tell me before I left the classroom?" /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""It's nothing, Jug. I just wasn't feeling my best but I'm okay," I lied, before looking back at my laptop. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Americus, you know you can tell me anything?" Jughead questioned. I looked at him once more and saw sincerity in his eyes. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I know. It's always been you and me against the world," I smiled with which he returned. I was then distracted by a flustered Betty leaving the group table from the other side of the field. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"strong style="font-weight: normal;" /strong/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Well, looks like there's another friendship broken," I told Jug as he turned around. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""And as always, there's Archie, trying to prove he is not the one at fault,"/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"strong style="font-weight: normal;"br /br /strong/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Well, I've got stuff to do. I'll see you later," Jughead told me as he got up and left, leaving me alone. I went back to writing my notes for a while before I felt someone standing in front of me. I looked up to see that it was Veronica Lodge, who I still hadn't held a full conversation with yet/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"strong style="font-weight: normal;" /strong/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Hi," I said quietly, a bit intimidated by her. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Hello, we haven't officially met besides running into each other at Pop's. I'm Veronica Lodge," Veronica introduced herself as she stuck her hand out for me to shake. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Americus Jones," I replied as I shook her hand. Veronica smiled at me before she spoke again. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Mind if I sit?" She asked but sat down anyway, leaving me with no choice. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""So, Americus, are you in any after school activities?" Veronica questioned before pulling her phone out./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Eh, no. Not really my thing. Jughead and I always go home straight away,"/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Really? Thats a shame, I was going to ask if you would join the River Vixens with Betty and I," Veronica questioned as she placed her phone back into her pocket./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Thanks, but cheerleading is not my forte since I have no coordination," I chuckled. A comfortable silence settled between us before the bell rang and I started to organise my textbooks back into my bag./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I've got to go, Veronica. I'll see you around?" I questioned as we stood up together./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Of course, Americus. You wouldn't by any chance have French next with me?" Veronica asked as we started to walk back into the school./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Luckily, I actually do," I laughed and turned to smile at Veronica./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Thank god," She exclaimed before linking her arm around mine. "I was scared I wasn't going to have any friends in French."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"strong style="font-weight: normal;" /strong/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: center;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"***/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"strong style="font-weight: normal;" /strong/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"It was finally last period of the day, Literature. I had been sitting next to Veronica in every class since lunchtime and we bonded a bit./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Class dismissed," The teacher told us. Ronnie and i both started to pack our things up and walk to the door when the teacher called out for me to stay. I gave a small smile to Veronica before she left./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"strong style="font-weight: normal;" /strong/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Mrs Jones, I hope you understand that you are severely disadvantaged in this class, Americus?" The teacher asked before the smile dropped from my face./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""E-excuse me?"/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""All the other kids have laptops, all you have is books. If you can't obtain a device soon, i think you should consider another class," The teacher said with fake sympathy./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Okay, thank you," I mumbled, picking my books back up and leaving the room. The only other laptop Jug and I had besides the one he uses was his old one which we left at our dad's trailer. It was my only option./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"strong style="font-weight: normal;" /strong/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I walked down the hallway to my locker but ran into Jughead./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"strong style="font-weight: normal;" /strong/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Hey, Jug. Listen-" I started to say before he cut me off./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Americus, i have things to do in town this afternoon. Do you mind going home by yourself?" Jughead told me, completely ignoring what I had to say while his eyes darted around the hallway looking for someone./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Yeah Jug but-" I tried to say again./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Thanks Mer," He replied quickly and walked off, not even looking me in the eye. I turned and watched as he made his way through the crowds of kids before disappearing. Tears started to form in my eyes as I realised what was starting to happen; Jughead was making amends with Archie and Betty while i was being pushed to the side, once again./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"strong style="font-weight: normal;" /strong/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I made it to my locker and filled my bag with my books before leaving with tears in my eyes./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"strong style="font-weight: normal;" /strong/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: center;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"***/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"strong style="font-weight: normal;" /strong/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Sunnyside trailer park. What an ironic name for a place where a full gang lived. I took a deep breath in before making my way in through the gates and started on my way towards the trailer I didn't think I would go back to./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"strong style="font-weight: normal;" /strong/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Hey Baby Face," I heard someone call out. I turned to my side to see it was only Sweet Pea./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Hey Sweet Pea, how's things?" I asked, walking up to him and giving him a hug which he returned./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Yeah, pretty good. I didn't expect to see you back here after the incident," He questioned, looking me up and down. "You look pretty good considering you were hospitalised for two months a couple of years ago,"/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"strong style="font-weight: normal;" /strong/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I shuffled awkwardly before looking him in the eye/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You promised you wouldn't bring that up again," I mumbled as I kicked a rock near my foot./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Yeah, I promised I wouldn't bring it up around other people. I don't see anyone else here?" Sweet Pea said dryly. "Anyway, I think I have the right to ask, considering I was the one that had to drive your bloodied, nearly dead body to hospital," Sweet Pea kept prodding at the memory i tried so hard to repress and forget about./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Stop it, sweet Pea. I don't want to remember," I said sharply, glaring him./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I'm just saying, it was bad what happened to you. It was even worse that Jughead still doesn't know what happened when you 'left with your Mum and Jellybean'"/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Enough!" I yelled. Sweet pea stepped back with a look of shock on his face./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Alright then, Baby Face. You're on your own then," Sweet Pea shrugged before heading towards his trailer./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"strong style="font-weight: normal;" /strong/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I once again took a deep breath to compose myself before walking up the steps of my dad's trailer. The door was cracked open a little, so I quickly made my way in and headed to Jug's and I's old bedroom. The walls were slowly peeling and our beds were still how they were when we decided to leave. I laughed to myself when I saw Jug's old superman clock sitting on the dresser still working. I found the laptop sitting on an old chair in the corner, covered with a layer of dust but still plugged in to the charger. I quickly grabbed them and shoved both the laptop and the charger into my bag before walking back out to the kitchen./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""What do you think you are doing here?" I heard a deep voice question. I looked up as the air was taken from my lungs when I realised that it was dad standing at the door./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"strong style="font-weight: normal;" /strong/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I-I just wanted to come and get my laptop," I stuttered as I started to panic. He stepped closer and i realised that he was grasping a beer bottle in his hand./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""So, you just think that you can ruin my life, leave with your brother and then just turn up because you want something? Not acceptable," He told me as continued to step closer and closer to me. Soon enough, he was right in front of me as I tried to cower away. Dad grabbed my arm and started dragging me towards the door before pushing me down the stairs. I tried to break my fall by stick my arm out that wasn't holding my bag, but ended up landing on it, causing pain. I tried to hold back the tears as I rolled onto my back and looked towards the door to see Dad still standing there./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"strong style="font-weight: normal;" /strong/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Listen up, scum. I'm trying to change my life to bring Jughead back here to live. I want the best for him. For you, I couldn't care less. You're the reason why my life fell apart. You're the reason your mum and Jellybean left and you know it! You are the problem!" Dad yelled at me before slamming the door, leaving me lying there, nursing my sore wrist. I continued to try and keep the tears in but the wall broke and I freely started to cry as I stood up and made my way out of the trailer park. Just as I was about to leave, I saw Sweet Pea starting to walk towards me./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Americus, ar-"/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Stay away from me, Sweet Pea," I grumbled back, before trudging my way out of the trailer park./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"strong style="font-weight: normal;" /strong/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"That day, I went home alone and continued to cry. It was the first time I had gone home and went to sleep without Jughead being around/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"strong style="font-weight: normal;" /strong/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: center;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"br class="kix-line-break" /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"br class="kix-line-break" /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"***/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"br class="kix-line-break" /br class="kix-line-break" /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""It's called necrophilia Reggie. Can you spell it?" Jughead retorted with a smirk. We were all currently sitting in the common room. Jughead was leaning against the wall while I sat next to Veronica, trying to finish my French homework with a bit of her help. Jughead and I had not spoken since that morning when he woke me up. I was not in a speaking mood and Jughead understood and respected that./spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"br class="kix-line-break" /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"br class="kix-line-break" /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Maybe it was someone you wouldn't expect," Reggie said loudly, stepping up and walking towards Jug. "Maybe it was poor innocent little Americus. I mean she's related to you so she's definitely not right in the head but she is always flying under the radar, trying not to be seen," Reggie continued until he was right in front of Jughead, while he glared me down. I cowered a bit and tried not to be seen. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Hey, shut the help up reggie!" Jughead told him in an angry tone./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Archie ran and intervened the fight before it could advance any further./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"strong style="font-weight: normal;" /strong/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Boys," Archie mumbled/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"br class="kix-line-break" /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""What do you care, andrews?" Reggie started to question. I started to tune out again, not really interested in their alpha male fighting./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Are you okay?" Veronica asked me quietly, as she realised I had gone back to my work./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Yeah, I'm okay," I replied back with a small smile. Our conversation was cut off abruptly when /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Did you and donnie darko kill him together?" Reggie questioned which brought everyone's attention back to the fight. Archie stood there and said nothing, not wanting this to go further/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"br class="kix-line-break" /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Was it some sort of pervy, blood brother thing?" Reggie continued. Archie got angry and shoved Reggie backwards. All hell broke loose and a brawl began. Soon enough though, Reggie punched Archie in the side of the head and he fell to the ground unconscious. Reggie smirked before he walked away./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Archie!" Betty exclaimed. Archie woke up a bit and was a bit groggy before him and betty went to the nurse's office./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Well, we all know that Reggie can't spell but apparently you can't either Jughead," I laughed as i turned around to face the others./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""What?" /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""It's necro/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"phil/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"ia not necro/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"pheel/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"ia," I smirked as we continued down the hallway./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Shut up," Jug chuckled as he messed my hair up. We all sat back down again and waited for class to start as we continued to talk while Veronica and I continued with the French homework/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""J'ai 17 ans…" I said out loud as I wrote it down./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""What happened to your wrist, Americus?" Veronica asked as she started to pull my sleeve up./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Ah," I exclaimed as I pulled my arm back away from her. "Nothing. I fell and landed on it,"/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Mer, tell me the truth!" Veronica exclaimed quietly, trying to make sure that no one else hears./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Drop it Veronica!" I told her before i gathered all my books and left the common room, leaving Jughead stunned./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"strong style="font-weight: normal;" /strong/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: center;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"***/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"strong style="font-weight: normal;" /strong/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Mer, is it okay if I meet up with you at Pop's later? There is just something I have to sort out first," Jughead's voice said through the crackly speaker./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Yeah Jug, that's okay," I told him, trying not to let the disappointment seep into my voice. I knew this was coming. Jughead was about to rekindle his relationship with Archie and then it would be all over for me./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Thanks, Mer. I'll come back and buy you a burger," He chuckled./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I hold you to that," I laughed back. "See you then," I told him before ending the call. I let my back relax against the familiar feeling of the diner seats. It had always been a comfort thing for me, knowing that Pop's was always a place I could seek refuge from to get away from the world. I pulled out my maths books and began to complete the maths questions. Hours seemed to pass by in a matter of minutes before I watched as Betty and Veronica walk in and sit down, obviously coming from the Pep rally. They silently laughed to each other while they talked, but i continued doing the English work I had to catch up on becuase I didn't have a laptop before. Suddenly i heard the jingle of the bell and saw Jughead pushing the door/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"br class="kix-line-break" /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I watched a Jughead walked in and my mood picked up as i knew he would sit with me. What I didn't realise was that he was coming in with Archie and they both automatically sat with Veronica and Betty. They all started laughing about stupid conversations/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"br class="kix-line-break" /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I got up and headed straight for the door when Jughead saw me. /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"br class="kix-line-break" /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"He tried to wave me down but I quickly left. I knew this was the start of my life spiralling more out of control than it already was./span/p 


End file.
